Youth restiveness, otherwise known as youth agitation and dissatisfaction over societal and development issues, is a global phenomenon which often manifests in various forms of social and political unrest. It is said to be extreme when there is a manifestation of disruptive, socially unacceptable behaviours among young people. This can include actions like vandalism, cultism, thuggery, violence, and participation in protests or civil unrest. Undoubtedly, youths may become restive over challenges such as marginalisation, oppression, unemployment, frustration, absence or inadequate basic amenities, infrastructure, lack of opportunities and high cost of living. Recently, there has been a resurgence of youth restiveness in several Delta Communities in Ndokwa West and Udu local government areas of the state, where youths blocked major roads over the neglect of their areas by both the state and federal governments. In some other communities, especially in Delta North, there have been agitations among the youths over what they described as government insensitivity to the rising rate of insecurity and economic hardship.
It is a fact that youth unrest has caused a lot of havoc in the Niger Delta and other parts of the country. Apart from the common blockage of major highways, there had been reported incidents of destruction of public buildings, attacks on innocent residents, looting of public and private warehouses, including supermarkets among others. More worrisome is a situation where restive youths resort to holding government officials and oil company workers hostage to force them to meet their demands. Although the country’s Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and the right to peaceful protest by every Nigerian but such is not a guarantee for the breakdown of law and order. However, since no society can develop in an atmosphere of youth restiveness, it is pertinent that necessary steps be taken by all critical stakeholders to address the agitations of communities.
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Candidly, the use of coercive approaches by government or security agencies to silence the agitations of the youths may be counter-productive. There is a compelling need for the Federal Government to intervene in the two decades of power outage and insecurity bedevilling the people of Utagba-Ogbe in particular, and the Ndokwa Ukwuani areas of Delta State. Moreover, the Delta State Government should bring more development to the areas, which undoubtedly are among the largest oil producers in the state. There is a dire need for the government to improve its relationship with communities with a view to preventing community social unrest.
One of the ways to achieve this is for the government to appoint community liaison officers to mediate on issues likely to lead to youth restiveness .The resolve by the administration of President Bola Tinubu to host a national youth dialogue is commendable, and a step in the right direction. Various state governments should organize similar youth dialogue to identify the agitations of the youths with a view to addressing the issues. Jobs should be provided for the youths to engage them while oil companies on the other hand should be alive to their corporate social responsibility by giving the youths employment, training and seminars to build their capacity for greater productivity and efficiency. In all, there should be justice, fairness, equitable allocation and distribution of public goods among communities without any deprivation, oppression and intimidation.
